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INDIA – A mother named Neelu, 25, and her three-year-old son were burned to death on April 2, 2013 in Pandhurna in Chhindwara district. They had been accused of practicing witchcraft by their neighbors, who suspected that the woman was a tonhi (sorceress). Their accusations resulted in the neighbors beating Neelu before they poured kerosene [...]

PETAUKE, ZAMBIA - Two elderly people have been axed to death in the Eastern Province of Zambia on suspicion of practicing witchcraft. Police Public Relations Officer Ms. Elizabeth Kanjela announced that Phanele Lupiya aged 63 of Chakumanika Village in Petauke was axed to death by her nephew, Lovemore Mwanza, aged 30 of the same village. “The [...]

The witch hunters have been busy this week. Reports of attacks came in from Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda. Kenya: Gang Burns Houses Over Witchcraft Allegations Fifteen family members of the Talai clan in Nandi County, Kenya are camping at a church after attackers who accused them of being witches torched their houses. Seven houses were [...]

One of many such stories. The photograph accompanying this article was taken in 2013. Or 2012 at the earliest. This is not ancient history. What follows are excerpts from an article at The Global Mail about Papua New Guinea, where belief in black magic persists and women are blamed, accused of sorcery and branded as [...]

Perhaps the most disturbing part of a story out of Abuja, Nigeria is that of one Auta Yako, 50, of Kugbo Market. The Karu Senior Magistrates’ Court on Monday convicted Mr. Yako for being a wizard and inciting public disturbance. The prosecutor, Francis Udofia, a police corporal, told the court that Mr. Yako had confessed openly [...]

On January 12th, 2013 in Jamshedpur, India, a man walked into the Rajnagar police station with the severed head of his 60-year-old sister-in-law and surrendered it, himself and the axe he used to kill the woman with to police in the Murumdih village in Jharkhand’s Seraikela-Kharswan district. Identified as Bagit, also known as Diku Mardi, [...]

Extreme violence and abuse is common against older women in Tanzania due to allegations of witchcraft. According to the Tanzania Legal and Human Rights Centre, between 2004 and 2009 more than 2,585 older women were killed in eight regions of the country because of alleged witchcraft. Although Tanzania has ratified the Convention on the Elimination [...]

NEPAL: Relatives of a woman in the Padaul village, in the Mahottari district of south-eastern Nepal, have been torturing her for the past four years on the charge of practicing witchcraft. Kari Yadav of Ward No. 2 of the VDC said relatives of Chadrakala Devi, 35, thrashed and boycotted her for the past four years [...]

A woman suspected of practicing witchcraft was murdered and her body burned over the weekend in the Colombian town of Santa Barbara. The naked body of María Berenice Martínez, 47,  was found inside her house with blows to the skull, her hair ripped out and apparetly  set afire. The killers had tied the door shut with a [...]

Police in Kaloleni, Kenya have launched a manhunt for a gang of men who are believed to have killed three Elders in the small African village. The three men, ages ranging between 60 and 65, were hacked to death with machetes after being accused of practicing witchcraft. Kaloleni DC Fredrick Ayieko described the gang as “professional [...]